On the 8th of May 2007, good friends and collaborators Dean Haglund and Phil Leirness started to “change the way people listen to the internet” with a free weekly podcast called “From the Heart of Hollywood”. Eventually, of course, the show became known as YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour and today the show turns 16 years of age, old enough to drive itself! Your friends in podcasting (and broadcasting) commemorate the occasion with very special episode where they discuss the ways the world has changed since they started the show 16 years ago, and how they predict the world will be different 16 years from now!

Rabbit, Rabbit! Welcome to May and welcome to the final show of year 15 of YOUR Chillpak Hollywood Hour where Dean and Phil get the ball rolling by discussing the obituary fictional character Dame Edna wrote for her creator prior to his death. Phil remembers the legendary playwright Robert Patrick and he and Dean ponder the life – not the legacy – of the woman who falsely accused Emmett Till. Then, in “Celebrity Deaths”, the towering artistry and humanity of Harry Belafonte gets discussed, as does Belafonte’s friendship with Sidney Poitier. The latest in the pending Writer’s Strike gets analyzed. Facts surrounding three movies discussed last week get revealed, the 1996 classic Irma Vep starring the incomparable Maggie Cheung gets revisited, and the countdown to the end of Netflix results in analysis of both Sean Baker’s Red Rocket and Mike Mills’ C’mon C’mon. Finally, the concluding seasons of “Succession” and “Barry” get hailed.

On this week’s episode, Dean and Phil pick up right where they left off last week when they were discussing the SAG Award winners. Specifically, they will analyze what the foreign-language “Squid Game” winners tell us about the ways Americans in general (and younger generations in particular) consume their entertainment and their openness to subtitles. This conversation continues with a review of the multiple Academy Award-nominated Norwegian film The Worst Person in the World. Other nominated films get reviewed, including Coda, and the 1961 classic Judgment at Nuremberg gets reappraised. The box office triumph of The Batman and what it might mean for movie-going gets examined. An awards season controversy and what it means for the Best Picture odds of The Power of the Dog get dissected. Dean offers up a BBC Series recommendation. Finally, in “Celebrity Deaths”, one author, three musicians, and the “Freddy Krueger of Magic” get remembered.

Why is Willard Scott kissing our asses this week? Because we just turned 100, baby! Dean and Phil celebrate this milestone with a special show where they take you on a tour of their DVD collections! Many intimate details are revealed: Such as what titles are “rainy day” favorites, what selections are excellent to have on in the background while doing work, which ones instruct and inspire them, which ones cost the most (!), and which DVD’s are kept unopened and unwatched (Dean and Phil discuss the joy of having such “untouched” titles in their collections). Dean’s collection reveals a diversity bordering on the disturbing. Phil’s collection reveals him to have a very strong nerd component to his makeup! Who knew?!

Join us in singing “Happy Birthday” to ourselves on this week’s Chillpak Hollywood Hour!